9.15.2011

Imagine this scene: Some maniacs have tied your children to a train track--then hopped on the train, released the brakes, and sent a mighty engine roaring down the track. Right for your children.
That’s what’s going on in Washington D.C. right now.

The train is, literally, the TRAIN Act of 2011, and next week, the House will vote on a bill (HR 1705) that was designed to cripple Clean Air Act regulations and intimidate the Environmental Protection Agency. The TRAIN Act requires a committee of cabinet secretaries to re-analyze the costs of public health protections. That’s right: RE-analyze. For a third time. Because when a bill is introduced, its costs are analyzed during the comment period, and again by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The TRAIN Act is a delaying tactic created to protect polluters’ right to pollute. We must take action now to stop this shameful bill.

The TRAIN ACT is busy work for politicians whose stated goal is to block any and all environmental protections--no matter what the cost to our children’s health. Mercury, lead, arsenic, acid gases--these are the poisons spewing from coal plants that EPA, in any administration, is required by law, under the Clean Air Act, to regulate. These are regulations that save hundreds of thousands of lives, and cut health care costs by trillions of dollars.
On top of it all, polluters and politicians want you to believe that regulations kill jobs and cripple the economy. This isabsolutely untrue.

We do not have to choose between jobs and clean air. We can have both.

Air pollution isn’t just dirty. It is poisonous. As a mom, I’m furious--and you should be too. Politicians can play politics with each other all they want. But they cannot play politics with my children.

Parents have a chance to make a difference, this week and next. Mothers’ voices will make a difference. Let Washington know that you are paying attention. Let Washington know that you want pollution to be controlled. Let Washington know that clean air saves lives.

Write to your representatives and let them know that they must stop that TRAIN speeding towards our children. Tell them to stop playing politics with our children.

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